


Operation Oz

by bicroft



Series: SamWELL [1]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spies & Secret Agents, Espionage, Friends to Lovers, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-07-14
Packaged: 2018-07-11 10:29:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7044718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bicroft/pseuds/bicroft
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"The name's Nurse-- Derek Nurse." </p>
<p>Dex wrinkled his nose. "You're an idiot-- a massive idiot." </p>
<p>(or: SamWELL is the American branch of an international spy coalition, and Nursey is an agent.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alittlefandominmylife](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alittlefandominmylife/gifts).



“I hope you know this isn’t a honeypot, Nurse.” 

Derek hid a sigh in his drink and continued smiling at the glittering heiress across the room. “I’m blending,  _ Dex _ .” he mumbled. “Doing what my cover would do.”

“ _ You’re  _ your cover.” Dex deadpanned, and Derek contemplated going to the bathroom and flushing his earwig down the toilet for the fiftieth time that evening. Why  _ anyone _ thought that having Dex run comms for him was a good idea, he had no clue. Or, well, he did- they had some pretty damn impressive mission success ratios- but, that didn’t make it any better of an idea. Dex was  _ annoying _ , and he didn’t seem to understand that he had to get his kicks  _ somewhere _ on this job. 

“And I would totally hit that.” Derek upped the smoulder in his grin, raising his glass at the girl. It had its intended effect; she flushed a light pink and finally smiled back-- though, at this point, it was more for Dex’s benefit. He was watching, somewhere, from some computer screen feeding into the venue’s security cameras, and it gave Derek endless joy to image the sound of him grinding his teeth in frustration. 

“I  _ hate  _ you.” Dex snarled-  _ check and mate _ \- and Derek couldn’t hold back a snort of laughter. He took a lot of pleasure in picking on Dex, especially for never having actually met the guy in person. “Your mark is moving, asshole.” 

“I’ve got eyes, Dex.” Derek hummed serenely, as if he were humoring him. He reluctantly tore his eyes from the girl and moved them back to the balding businessman he was supposed to be tailing. He was, indeed, moving, and looking quited harried. “Any idea what’s got our friend so shaken up?”

“You’ve got eyes.” Dex sniped. “Your guess is as good as mine. No one’s coming your way, so, I don’t think you’ve been made, but…”

“But.” Derek echoed, not needing the rest of the statement to know what it meant. ‘ _ But _ , there are worse things than having a cover compromised.’ ‘ _ But _ , I don’t know everything; watch your back.’  _ ‘But _ , you should probably get a move on.’ “I guess party time’s over, then. Keep an eye out for me; I’m in pursuit.” 

“Party time never started, for some of us.” Dex huffed, but Derek knew he had his back anyway. For as much as they got on each other’s last nerves, Dex always came through for him. They had one of the highest mission success rates in W.E.L.L for a reason, after all. 

Derek smiled as he downed the rest of his drink and pushed away from the bar. It looked like his mark was heading towards the bathroom which, if he would play it right, would be the prime place to lift the drive he’d been sent here to acquire. He dodged servers and couples with grace as he moved through the crowd, and made it through the door just before it closed behind his mark, bumping into him from behind. “Oh!” he huffed, pushing past, with an arm on the man’s shoulder, distracting him briefly from the hand slipping into his jacket pocket and grabbing the drive. “My bad, man, I didn’t mean to--”

“No, it’s quite--”  _ Alright _ was how that statement should have ended, Derek was sure, but it never got to that point. Suddenly, there was a voice in his ear crying “ _ Nurse, get down, there’s a-- _ ”, and Derek had all of five seconds to dive before a spray of bullets ripped through the small bathroom window.

“Holy  _ shit _ .” he breathed, once his ears had stopped ringing. “Dex? Can it get a sit rep, because--”

“ _ Holy shit _ .” Dex’s voice had gone up a few octaves, and Derek could actually hear his fingers flying across the keyboard. “I have no idea what just happened-- Derek, get the hell out of there.” 

Derek frowned, pushing himself to his feet. Dex sounded  _ scared _ , which was something he’d never heard before; annoyed or frustrated, yes, but never scared. “Did you just call me--”

“Not the time, Agent Nurse.” Dex snapped, suddenly back to his usual self. “Get out, now, and get to the nearest safehouse. You’ll have a flight out in the morning, but til then, comms will be dark.” 

“Right, yeah.” Derek sighed, looking towards the window. It probably wasn’t the safest route out, as he was three stories up, and there was a decent jump between him and the treeline, but the sound of approaching footsteps told him he had no other choice. 

“See you on the other side, Dex.” he said, and jumped. 

“No, you won’t, Nurse.” he heard Dex say before his earpiece went dead.  “There is no other side.” 

 

* * *

 

“-- This complete and utter  _ bullshittery _ .” Shitty said, pacing the area in front of the projection screen. He’d been doing this for going on twenty minutes, now, as they waited for Lardo to arrive and the UNWELL council to convene for the special debrief. Due to the way Derek’s mission had ended, they had deemed it necessary, though Shitty wasn’t happy at all about the interference. 

“Dude,” Derek said, leaning back in his chair. “Chill. They want to figure out what happened, just like we do.”  

“Bruh, I am so unchill right now, and will remain unchill for so long that they might as well classify me as my own damn desert.” Shitty huffed, but he at least stopped pacing. “What  _ they _ want is to make this a bureaucratic nightmare, tie it up in red tape, drench it in black ink, and hand it back to us with a little gag order so that they never have to think about it again.” 

“Which is why we’ve got a plan.” Lardo, thankfully, chose that moment to enter, and both Shitty and Derek’s eyes swivelled to her. She looked calm and collected as usual, only the slight bags under her eyes betraying the fact that she’d gotten just as much rest as the rest of them had- which was to say, none at all. 

Behind her was a tall redhead Derek had never seen before, shoulders slumped too much for him to be an actual agent. He looked like he’d at least attempted to dress up, and had fallen more than a little flat with his flannel shirt and khakis that had frayed at the bottom from wear. That, and the fact that he was paler than a vampire in the winter betrayed him as someone from the tech division; probably one of Dex’s lackies, if Derek had to guess. He was cute, objectively; freckled and not meeting anyone’s eyes, definitely nervous-- and he made a mental note to send a few lines his way and see what stuck. Derek could dig a cute techie. 

The UNWELL council logged on just as he was contemplating whether or not this particular techie would appreciate Keats or Trek quotes more. Everyone in the room sat up a bit taller as the representatives stared back at them, all looking as foreboding and dreary as they usually did. “Mr. Knight, Agents Duan and Nurse.” the Head Councilwoman said, nodding at them each in turn. She didn’t even look towards the techie, which didn’t seem to bother him. “It seems you’ve had an incident.” 

“I wouldn’t say this one was entirely on us, ma’am,” Lardo said evenly. “Our mission brief stated that there would be no hostilities on this mission, and that our agent was to recover the drive-- that was all.” 

“And, by those standards.” Shitty said, standing. “It was a mission success. The death of the target was not our fault, or even on our radar.” 

“That being said, there was still an incident.” another council member said. Derek could see the matching tick in Shitty and Lardo’s jaws at the condescension in his voice. The redheaded techie flinched, and Derek felt a little pang of sympathy for him. He wasn’t being paid enough for this, probably; hadn’t even been on this mission. It’d just been him and Dex, since they’d thought it was a routine milk run. “And, it needs to be resolved.”

“We have a plan of action already.” Lardo said, moving to stand beside Shitty. “Overnight, we found ties from the mark to other underworld organizations-- including, distantly, ACE.” 

There was an obvious air of tension in the room now. No one talked about ACE, and the UNWELL council didn’t want to recognize them as a threat, but the number of WELL missions being sabotaged by the organization worldwide was climbing too high to go unnoticed as of late. “Do you think this was a hit against SamWELL, Ms. Duan?” the Head Councilwoman asked. 

Lardo shook her head. “The information we obtained was on the auction block, ma’am.” she said. “I think that the ACEs lost the bid, and decided that if they couldn’t have it, no one could.”

“What exactly is on the drive, then?” A different councilwoman piped up. Lardo shoot her head. 

“We aren’t sure, yet.” she said. “It’s encrypted heavily, but, we’re working on breaking it.” 

“The information we’ve received so far makes it look like a list of coordinates.” Shitty said. “Leading to what, we don’t know, but we plan to send Agent Nurse to look into it, as he was there when the initial incident took place.” 

“We’re also asking that his clearance level be upped to twenty.” Lardo said, which got Derek’s attention. He hadn’t known about this part, and, he only had level twelve clearance, now. Twenty, though it wasn’t the top of the ladder-- Shitty had level twenty five, Chowder had thirty, and no  one really knew how far up  Lardo could go-- was pretty damn high up there. 

The Head Councilwoman looked as surprised as he did. “With all due respect, Agent Duan,” she said, somehow managing to make it sound like that wasn’t very much respect at all. “I don’t think that there’s a precedent for that here. This seems like an information gathering mission, and while it may not be basic--”

“With all due respect to you, Councilwoman.”  Lardo said, echoing the passive insult. “We’re dealing with ACE here, most likely, and we’ve learned from past mistakes that they shouldn’t be underestimated. Dealing with them, and decrypting the information that Agent Nurse would need from the recovered drive will require on site technical assistance from a trained expert-- in this case, the head of our technical division. Level twenty clearance is required to meet with him, so--”

“So, since Agent Nurse is already in the room with me, and since I’m the only person in the entire system who’s going to be able to get him the information he needs, he may as well have the clearance necessary to make eye contact with me.”

Derek instinctively reached for his ear when he heard Dex’s voice, and looked around the rooms for hidden speakers or somewhere he could be hiding. The voice wasn’t tinny and distant, though, as it normally would be- it was in the room. Derek’s gaze snapped to the redheaded techie, who seemed like he was the one who had spoken, and, oh  _ god-- _

“Watch yourself, Agent Poindexter.” the Head Councilwoman said, and Dex (Dex! It was really Dex; Derek couldn’t believe it.)  “It’s been quite some time since you’ve had field experience, hasn’t it?”

“My field testing scores were in the ninety eighth percentile, ma’am.” Dex said, not sounding proud, as anyone else would be, but just like he was stating a fact. “And, Agent Nurse is more than capable of handling himself under pressure, should I need assistance.” 

That just might have been the first time that Dex had ever complimented him, and Derek couldn’t even tease him about it. Had he not been so shocked about actually being in the same room as him, still, he might’ve been a little disappointed. The Head Councilwoman,  though, just maintained an unimpressed expression for a few long moments before he sighed. 

“Very  well.” she said, and had she been any less composed, Derek though she might have spat the words. “See that you’re briefed on field procedures and that the UNWELL council is informed of your progress at regular intervals.” She nodded to someone off camera, and the connection went dead. Shitty let out a long whistle as he hit a button to raise the projector screen. 

“Man, that was fuckin’ cold, even for her.” he said.  “She’s got a bone with you, Poindexter.” 

“Yeah,” Dex mumbled, slumping in his seat. “I know.” He looked exhausted and small. Derek felt the odd and overwhelming urge to hug him, but he was pretty sure that would get him punched and also couldn’t get his legs to work properly, so, he sat.  

“Holy shit.” Derek said, as that was the only thing he could process. “Dex, dude.”

“Ta-da.” Dex drawled, recognizing his presence for the first time. “Congratulations, Nurse; you now get to count yourself among the five people who have seen me in person in the last five years.” 

“Didn’t know they let you out from behind the curtain, Oz.” Derek shot back, because this was exactly the same thing he did on comms, right? It shouldn’t be weird; if he and Dex could shoot the shit without seeing one another, they could do it in person. (Except, this was also the cute guy Derek was planning to flirt with not even thirty minutes ago--  _ oh, god, Dex was cute _ ; he was screwed.) 

“They  don’t.” Dex said. “That’s the whole deal.”

“Banter on the plane.” Lardo said, sliding two manila folders their way. “Dex has the coordinates, and that’s all the information we have so far; we’re pretty much flying blind on this one, so, watch each other’s backs.”  

“Don’t we always?” Derek said, giving her a grin, which she returned. 

“Kick some ass, boys.” she said before sweeping from the room, Shitty at her heels. He gave Derek and Dex a thumbs up before the door closed behind them, and it was just the two of them, sitting in a room, staring at each other.

“So,” Derek said slowly after a full minutes of silence. “You’re a redhead?”

“And you’re an asshole.” Dex said, but he also  blushed, so Derek just grinned. Dex sighed,  and stood. “Go back a bag, Nurse; we’re going to France.” 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nurse wouldn’t stop staring at him.

Nurse wouldn’t stop staring at him.

****

Every time Dex would look up from his laptop, there he’d be, looking at him like he was some kind of apparition. It was unnerving and a little annoying, and then a little-- _something else_ , that Dex didn’t want to label. He was good at compartmentalizing emotions, and this _whatever_ he was feeling for Nurse was no different. “Could you, like, _not_.” he huffed, pinning the agent with a glare. “You’re throwing me off; I’m actually trying to do some work here.”

****

“Sorry, man,” Nurse said, though he somehow managed to not sound it in the least. “I’m just, like-- can’t believe I’m actually seeing you. ‘S weird, after just having you in my ear for so long.”

****

“Yeah, well.” _‘Take a picture, it’ll last longer’_  was on the tip of his tongue, but, he bit his tongue before the words could escape. If he said it, there was always the chance that Nurse might actually _do_ it, being the contrary asshole he was, and Dex wasn’t ready to deal with his favorite agent getting dragged off to a nameless prison for snapping a candid an hour into their first mission. “Just-- whatever.”

****

(He wasn’t even denying Nurse was his favorite, at this point; he was too far into the Whatever to do that.)

****

“You’re a lot more eloquent on comms.” Nurse mused, smirking lazily.

****

“Because I don’t have to look at your ugly face and try to process words at the same time.” Dex snapped, feeling his face heat up. He hadn’t had to worry about other people seeing him blush in _years;_ this was already going awfully.

****

Nurse just laughed. “Yo, Dex, _chill.”_ he said. Dex ground his teeth; god, hadn’t he heard that one before. It sounded a lot different coming through headphones than it did coming from Nurse’s mouth-- more intimate, somehow.

****

Dex hated being around people. There was so much to process.

****

“I am chill.” he huffed. “So chill, the chillest. Just-- fuck off.” He turned back to his computer, shifting so that he wasn’t facing Nurse as much anymore, but, he could still feel his gaze. He tried to will himself back into the code, staring intensely at the lines of gibberish on his screen and hoping that, maybe if he just _wished_ hard enough, they’d turn into something more meaningful. Nothing happened, though, and he bit down on a noise of disgust. This was _ACE_ they were dealing with-- of all the shadowy freelancers, it was just his own goddamn luck that it’d be ACE.

****

Dex knew firsthand how awful this mission was shaping up to be, and not even the fact that he’d gotten to breath fresh air and see the sun for the first time in half a decade made him feel any better. How was he meant to enjoy that, or the taste of freedom, or even stupid fucking Nurse’s presence if he knew that it would all be taken away at any moment? They could be struck down by ACE agents, or, even worse, the UNWELL council could decide that it wasn’t a good idea to have Dex roaming about anymore and shove him back into his safe house. Dex was of two minds about that place; it was a prison and a refuge in one. It kept him shielded from the outside world, but he had no illusions that it was also to keep the outside world from him. Honestly, it was almost as bad as--

****

He shook that particular train of thought from his head; for five years, he’d told himself that he wasn’t going to think about it, and most of the time, when the nights weren’t too dark, he did a damn good job of it. He was with SamWELL, now, and he knew that even if the UNWELL council didn’t give a flying rat’s ass about whether or not he lived or died, so long as he had been useful and didn’t give over any secrets in the process, they actual agents cared enough about him to make up for it. Lardo cared, Chowder cared, Shitty cared. _Nurse_ cared-- which was actually a feeling all its own, and Dex still didn’t know how to process it.

****

He stares at the code for a few more minutes before he finally sighs, frustrated, and slams his laptop shut. “Fucking _shitlords_ .” he says with feeling, and Nurse snorts. Dex pins him with a glare. “Problem, _agent_?”

****

“Not a one.” Nurse says easily. “You okay over there?” He’s leaning across the small space between them, and Dex assures himself that it’s only because he hasn’t had a person so close in so long that his face starts heating up.

****

“Fine.” he says hastily. “Just-- this file is a bunch of fucking nonsense. It’s  not in any specific language or cypher, and if it’s a combination or something, I’m going to need a lot more time to figure out what it is and what it means.” The coordinates had been easy and unencrypted, like a peace offering to whoever the buyer was intended to be; something to showcase. “I’ll probably get a better idea once I see where this all leads.”

****

“We should be landing in a few hours.” Nurse says, leaning back into his own space. “You look fucking wiped, man; take a nap and come back to it.”

****

“This is how my face always looks.” Dex huffs, wrinkling his nose. His blush hasn’t subsided; he hates that he’d let his formerly well-trained poker face fall to the wayside with his time spent alone. He resolves to practice that again, and keep in up once he gets home. _If_ he gets home.

****

“That’s rough, buddy.” Nurse says, and Dex wants to punch him square in the face until he continues. “Take a nap anyway, though; if your face _does_ always look like that, you’re running on some fucking severe sleep deprivation, man.”

****

“What the fuck _ever_ , Nurse.” Dex mumbles, but he puts his laptop down and turns over all the same, closing his eyes. “Wake me up before we land.”

****

“Sir yes sir.” Nurse hums, and Dex can’t keep a small smile off his face for the life of him. He has it so fucking bad.

 **  
** He dozes off a few minutes later, genuine exhausted, but he’s awake long enough to feel something heavy and warm being draped over him. It’s a coat-- not his coat, because that was in the overhead, and he hadn’t heard Nurse move, so that means it’s Nurses coat. He can’t even blush, still drifting to sleep, and if he maybe curls into it and breathes in deeply, that’s no one else’s fucking business.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! Not much plot in this one, especially not compared to the last, but we get our first big glimpse into the mind of Dex!!! Where does he come from??? What's going to happen to him???? Why are the UNWELL council assholes?????? Who knows! (I do. I know.)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Landing, flashbacks, nightmares, and codes.

“Mother _ fucker! _ ” Derek cries, holding his nose. Dex at least has the good grace to look sheepish, though it’s only a subtitle to his pissed expression. “What the  _ fuck _ was that for?”

 

“I’m not used to other people touching me.” Dex says, and it sounds like half an apology, which Derek figures is all he’s going to get. “I forgot I wasn’t back in-- back home.” Dex wrinkles his nose in a way that lets Derek know that that’s not at all what he wants to say, which makes him curious. 

 

“Where the hell did they even keep you?” he asks, getting up off of the floor. His nose isn’t broken, though he makes a mental note that Dex has a killer right hook. He wasn’t one of those defenseless Q types, then. “It definitely wasn’t at the HAUS; I’d’ve seen you before now, if so.” 

 

“Maine.” Dex says, rolling his shoulders and settling back into his seat, seemingly more calm. “Like, really fucking remote Maine. Cabin in the woods type of deal, except with really good wifi. It wasn’t too bad.” 

 

“I’m not the woodsy type, so, I’ll take your word for it.” Most of the flannel that was in his civilian clothes was designer; Derek had grown up in Manhattan and had been camping exactly once, for training. 

 

“What, Mr. Champagne and Armani’s never roughed it? I’m  _ so  _ surprised.” Dex rolls his eyes, sitting forward and grabbing his laptop. 

 

“Oh, I’ve done a few things rough.” Derek snorts, smirking and enjoying the way Dex’s face automatically goes red. “I just can’t sustain a lifestyle that way.”   
  
“I  _ hate  _ you,” Dex groans, holding his laptop to his chest like that would create some kind of barrier between the two of them. “Did you wake me up for a reason, or did you just want to be annoying?”

 

“Always the latter,” Derek says, settling back in his own seat. “But, you said to wake you up when we were about to land, and, we’ve got five minutes til be we start our descent. Figured you’d want to be awake before then.” 

 

“Yeah, thanks.” Dex mumbles, and he starts shoving his things into the one bag he brought with him. Derek thought it was kinda weird that he wouldn’t have more-- a case or something with all his gadgetry. There was a lot less hooplah to this quartermaster business than he thought, apparently. 

 

They land not long after, grabbing their suitcases and rolling through customs checks. The entire time, Derek can’t help but watch Dex with some mix of curiosity and wonder. He looks somehow relaxed and tense, eyes wandering everywhere and lingering on ads and people. Derek gets the blinding reminder that,  _ holy shit _ , this is the first time Dex has left his secret cabin in half a decade, and that, maybe--

 

* * *

 

**_Rome, 2013_ **

 

_ “It’s really pretty out here.” Derek says as he slides along the side of a building, trying not to fall to his death.  _

 

_ “Nurse, you’re trying to scale a fucking building, stop appreciating the architecture.” Dex snaps. Derek laughs.  _

 

_ “It’s pretty, though,” he repeats. “You ever seen it?” _

 

_ “I can Google Rome, yes.” Dex says, still sounding annoyed, but now a little cagey, too. Derek frowns as he tries to figure out how to get past a window without being spotted.  _

 

_ “No,” he says. “I mean, like, in person.”  _

 

_ Dex is silent for so long that Derek’s about to question it before the other man blurts, almost faster than Derek can process it: “I’ve never left the country.”  _

 

_ “ _ What _?” Derek cries, probably very nearly revealing himself. He brings his voice down and hisses “Dude, no way. You’ve never even been to, like, Canada?” _

 

_ “I just said never, didn’t I?” Dex says, and he sounds  _ embarrassed  _ now. “Keep your fucking voice down; there’s guards through that wall, dumbass.”  _

 

_ “I’m taking you to see Rome one day.” Derek says a few minutes later, after he makes the jump he needs to and is back to moving along the building. “And Paris, and London, and Madrid, Cairo-- everywhere. Me and you, dude, around the world.”  _

 

_ “Get the information, Agent Nurse.” Dex says, voice quieter, and Derek might be imagining the edge to it that sounds like tears. “And then we’ll talk.”  _

  
  


* * *

 

 

“Oh my god.” Derek says. “Holy shit!”

 

Dex frowns, eyes snapping to him. “What, what is it?” he asks, voice low. “Do you see something, someone hostile?”

 

Derek frowns. “Wha-- oh, no, sorry. I was just thinking.”

 

“Think to yourself.” Dex says, and averts his gaze again, brow furrowed.

 

“This is the first time you’ve left the country.” Derek says. Dex’s eyes go wide for a moment, and he’s blushing again, but he still won’t look at him. 

 

“Yeah, well.” Dex says, obviously trying to avoid addressing it, but finding no way out. “I didn’t think you remembered that.” he finally mumbles, and acquiescence. 

 

“Forget my promise?” Derek asks, eyebrow raised. “Never-- I don’t forget shit like that. Told you I’d show you Paris someday, didn’t I?”

 

“Technically, you’re not showing me Paris.” Dex says, but he’s smiling now, and finally meeting Derek’s eye. “I’m showing my own self Paris-- and, it’s not like you’re going to be able to take me to Eiffel Tower or anything; we’re here on  _ business,  _ Nurse.”

 

“Maybe we’ll get to wrap up early.” Derek says, but he already knows they won’t. It was needless to say that there was more to this all than met the eye, and even the most simple of milk runs would turn into three month operations in half a second.    
  
“Yeah, right,” Dex says, rolling his eyes. “And maybe I’ll buy a ranch in Wyoming.” 

 

“Why the hell would you voluntarily move to Wyoming?” is Derek’s question as they step out off the airport. All Dex does in reply is make a frustrated noise and roll his eyes, though Derek doesn’t miss the deep breath he takes.  _ “I don’t get much fresh air.”  _ he recalls Dex saying, time and time again. Derek  _ really  _ needs to stop thinking about all this stuff, because it’s starting to give him chest pains and butterflies. 

 

Dex is uneasy again as soon as they step out onto the street proper, people surrounding them. He presses close to Derek’s side, and Derek lets him without comment, both because it has its tactical advantages, and because he enjoys the warm presence at his side. 

 

Despite the fact that he’s a solo agent, instead of working in a partnership like Bittle and Jack, or Chowder and Farmer, Derek isn’t a creature of solitude. He’d grown up an only child, and though he had no doubts that his mothers loved him, they’d both been busy and unintentionally distant, and if it were at all possible he got affection even  _ less  _ working for SamWELL, despite the fact that he’d somehow been built up into a lady killer- that actually probably had to do with his history of honeypot missions, but, he couldn’t exactly be blamed for that.  He’d grown up not exactly touch starved, but always touch  _ starving _ , and he’s learned not to take any kind of closeness for granted. 

 

“We, apparently, have hotel reservations now.” Derek almost jumps from how close Dex’s voice is. Not hearing it through a speaker is going to take some getting used to, he knows, but he also thinks that he may  _ never  _ get used to it. Dex holds up a phone he produced from seemingly nowhere, but probably his back pocket, and shows Derek an email.  _ ShittyTravels@noreply.com   _ is the name in the address bar, and Derek can’t help but smile. 

 

“Gotta love Shits.” he says.

 

“Get us a cab.” Dex says, but there’s the edge of  a laugh in his voice, and it makes Derek smile wider. 

 

Dex is doing something on his phone the whole cab ride, and Derek keeps himself from looking over his shoulder by taking in the scenery. “You gonna bother looking up from that thing?” he asked, almost offhandedly. 

 

“You gonna bother remembering what’s at stake here?” Dex asks, deadpan. Derek doesn’t have to look away from the window to know he hasn’t lifted his head. 

 

“Chill,” he says. “I know what I’m doing here.” 

 

“Technically, you don’t.” Dex says, still not looking up. “Since I still haven’t figured it out.”

 

“Then figure it out.” Derek says, shrugging. Dex actually does look up this time, but only to glare. 

 

“Fuck you.” he says, which Derek reads as ‘I’m trying’, so he lets it go. 

 

Their hotel is nice; not extravagantly so, like the ones Derek would normally be staying in, trying to lure or impress a high-ranking mark. It’s nice in the normal, average way hotels are, but the way Dex is looking around the lobby when they enter makes Derek think that this is another luxury he’d never experienced. “You wanna scope the lobby out while I check us in?” he asks. Dex makes a vague humming noise in reply, sliding his phone back into his pocket and wandering off. 

 

The reservation, as always, was under Derek’s real first name, and a fake last name--  _ Derek Poindexter;  _ what kind of name even  _ was  _ that?-- and checking in was easy. He nods Dex towards the elevators after a moment, and Dex follows, seeming at peace with the security of the lobby. 

 

The room is two beds, a bathroom, and very little else, but Dex automatically takes to checking it out like any of the maybe twelve pieces of furniture there could be bugged- which, Derek reasons as he watches him take apart the bedside lamp, is potentially  _ true _ , but also highly unlikely. “Dude,” he snorts, taking the bed closest to the window. “Chill.” 

 

“Fuck  _ off _ .” Dex looks like he wants to throw the light bulb at him, but graciously just puts it back into the lamp and starts getting set up on the other side of the room. 

 

“Are you gonna sleep, or?” Derek asks, because it’s pretty late, and because Dex kind of still looks like he needs a good nap. 

 

“Nope.” Dex doesn’t even bother looking at him, continuing to set up his-- frankly, way too many-- laptops and gadgets on the small desk in the corner. “I’ve got work to do.”

 

“Dude, how do you  _ function _ ?” Derek asks, because he was used to sleepless nights, sure, but after as many as Dex must have on a regular basis, he’d be more useless than a groggy zombie. 

 

“Generally with a lot of caffeine and spite.” Dex shoots back, as if that’s a  _ normal  _ answer. 

 

_ “I’m _ sleeping.” Derek says, and Dex just shrugs. 

 

“Suit yourse--  _ Jesus Christ,  _ what’re you doing?” He had apparently chosen the moment Derek started pulling his shirt over his head to look up from his work, but, Derek couldn’t be bothered to be embarrassed. 

 

“Getting ready for bed?” he says, voice muffled by the fabric of his shirt as he pulls it the rest of the way over his head and tosses it onto the bed. “I’m not gonna sleep in my clothes, dude; that’s uncomfortable.” 

 

“I don’t care what it is!” Dex splutters, entire face flushing bright red. “Could you at least do it in the bathroom, or something?”

 

“Bro,” Derek says. “Chill. It’s not a big deal; I don’t sleep naked or anything.” 

 

“I don’t  _ care _ .” Dex says again, but the octave of his voice implies otherwise. “Just-- whatever. Whatever, do what you want.”

 

“Always do.” Derek says with a shrug, and goes back to undressing. Dex keeps his back studiously turned, fiddling with his tech more than Derek thinks is strictly necessary, but Derek doesn’t question it. He probably should have known better than to just blindside Dex with some semi-nudity, but also, he figured that full immersion was going to be the only way to go here. Neither of them could afford to have him off his game because he was busy walking on eggshells in an attempt to shelter Dex. He was a big boy, and a full agent, and despite the stupid little voice in Derek’s head telling him that he needed to be protected, Dex could handle himself. 

 

He settles down not long after, leaving the light on for Dex’s benefit; he’s slept in worse conditions. “Good night.” he calls, and gets a grunt in reply. He chooses, with false hope, to read it as ‘sweet dreams’, and closes his eyes, drifting off soon enough to the sound of Dex’s fingers dancing across the keyboard.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Derek wakes up to screaming. He’s out of bed and on his feet immediately, eyes darting around the room to find the source of the noise and the threat; he identifies the first as Dex easily enough, and the second as-- 

 

Empty air. There was no one in the room, and after rushing over, Dex didn’t seem to be bleeding. “Dude,” he asks, a little breathless, brow furrowed. “Are you okay? What happened, are you--” 

 

“I’m fine, Nurse.” Dex is speaking through gritted teeth, and refusing to meet Derek’s eye. “I fell asleep, sorry.”

 

“That doesn’t explain the screaming.” Derek says, but upon closer examination, it kind of does. The rise and fall of Dex’s chest looks almost forced, and if he’d been sleeping, then that meant that--

 

“I have nightmares, alright?” Dex snaps, pushing himself away from the desk and away from Derek in one move, scrubbing at his eyes. “I’m usually  _ alone _ when I have them, and not in some weird hotel room, so that probably made them worse. It’s not a big deal, alright? I’m fine.” 

 

“You need to get some real sleep, man.” Derek says, instead of stepping forward and doing something absurd like pulling Dex into his arms, because that was likely to get him punched again. “Lay down. I can stay awake and watch the room, if that’d make you feel safer.” 

 

“Don’t make it weird; I said I was fine.” Dex huffs, but his voice is gentler and his breathing has evened out a little bit. “I need to finish this up before I go to bed, anyway.” He gestures back at one of his laptops.

Derek squints at the screen, but can’t tell what any of the fast-moving text filtering across the screen says, so he turns back to Dex. “What is it?”

 

“It’s an algorithm for solving the code that’s on that drive.” Dex answers, scooting back over to the desk. “I linked it to the cryptology database back at WELL, and it’s running through all the possible combinations of encryption or code this could be- hopefully, we’ll find at least a partial match, and can have something to go off of.” 

 

“Fucking  _ sweet _ .” Derek gives a low whistle. “So, is it not done?” 

 

Dex looks like he actually has to consider this, brow furrowing.  “I mean, it mostly is, I guess.” he admits finally. “But, I was going to stay up and watch it, so--”

 

“So, you’re not doing that anymore.” Derek cuts in. “ _ Sleep _ , man. I know you’re used to being mission control and shit, but, you’re not sitting alone behind a desk anymore.” 

 

“Technically I am, right now.” Dex says, gesturing at his setup. Derek rolls his eyes. 

 

“You know what I mean.” he says. “Go to sleep, Dex. We’ve got the fucking time, believe me; there’s gotta be  _ thousands _ of combinations for that to run through.”

 

Dex stares at him for a full minute before he sighs and nods. “Fine.” He pushes away from the desk and stretches, kicking off his shoes and flopping onto the bed Derek hadn’t been sleeping in. He doesn’t undress more than that, or get under the covers, but he wriggles around into weirdly contorted position with his back to the wall that Derek has to assume is somehow comfortable. “Turn the light off.” he yawns, eyes falling shut. Derek snorts. 

 

“You got it, bro.” he says, and does just that before climbing back into bed. “Night, Dex.” 

 

“Whatever, Nurse.” Dex huffs, and Derek chooses to read that the same way as he had before. 

  
He waits until he hears Dex’s breathing even out before he drifts off again. 

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote the majority of this today, and it's in no way beta read, so any and all mistakes are mine. I hope it's worth all the hooplah y'all made it out to be <3 (special credit to @alittlefandominmylife (disney-princess-in-the-making on tumblr) for letting me bounce idea off of her. <3 
> 
> For more in the SamWELL series (headcanons for the other characters, drabbles, and questions) check my tumblr justinbirkholtz.


End file.
